


Thursday Afternoons And Baseball Caps

by One_Small_Writer



Category: Newsies!: the Musical - Fierstein/Menken
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Baseball Caps, Baseball Player Jack Kelly, F/M, Fluff, Play Fighting, Roughhousing, Sharing Clothes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-26
Updated: 2020-08-26
Packaged: 2021-03-06 15:09:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,354
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26120941
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/One_Small_Writer/pseuds/One_Small_Writer
Summary: On their annual Thursday trip to the baseball field next to their school, Jack's baseball cap ends up on Katherine's head. He finds this extremely cute.
Relationships: Jack Kelly/Katherine Plumber
Comments: 2
Kudos: 17





	Thursday Afternoons And Baseball Caps

Katherine and Jack, when together, were extremely goofy.

On any normal day in any normal circumstance, or around anyone but Jack and their friends, Katherine was very serious and proper, too scared to step so much as a toe out of line, but when she was with the boys she was loud and silly, almost boisterous.

That’s the influence Jack Kelly had on her. He made her relax, not afraid to have some fun or to muck around.

It’d become a tradition between Katherine and Jack to go to the batting cages at the baseball field next to the school almost every Thursday after school, one of the only days in the week neither of them had something on. 

The plan they made originally was that Jack, being a very valued member of the school’s baseball team, would practice pitch, or on the occasion he could convince Katherine to pitch, batting, and Katherine would watch and do her homework.

That rarely happened.

Most of the time the pair ended up roughhousing, play wrestling in the dirt or jumping each other with the intention of taking each other to the ground, chasing each other around the field and general, just being extremely obnoxious. Luckily for them, the field rarely had more than a group of ten occupying it at any given time.

Every Thursday Katherine would go home covered in dirt, her clothes filthy, and every Thursday her dad would yell at her for being covered in dirt, for not acting proper and for ‘hanging around with that immature boy who’s a horrible influence’, but she didn’t care. She loved Jack, and she loved their joint goofiness and their roughhousing, it was fun and for a short period of time, Katherine forgot about the constant pressure to be perfect looming over her head. With Jack, she could just be herself.

This particular Thursday was no different.

Once school had finished, Jack and Katherine planned to meet on the front steps as they always did, and as usual, Katherine got there earlier.

“Hey Kat!” Sarah called to her as she and Davey walked passed, “Waiting for Jack again?”

“You know it,” Katherine laughed, “You haven’t seen him, have you?”

“He went to get his jersey, you know, for the game Saturday. I actually don’t think he took it home last week. Anyway, he’ll be out in a second,” Davey told her, wincing at the thought of the unwashed jersey. Katherine copied his actions, and the three of them laughed.

“Well, we better be going, don’t want to be late in picking but Les, again,” Sarah said, glaring a bit at Davey who held his hands up in surrender.  
Katherine laughed again, smiling and waving as they walked away.

A little after five minutes later, Jack burst through the double doors of the school building and raced towards Katherine, sprinting down the stairs and all but body-slamming her into a hug.

“Hi,” She giggled, bringing her arms up to hug him back.

“Hey,” He laughed, squeezing her tighter, “Sorry I was a little late, I was trying to be quick but coach saw me and started going on about Saturday, I tried to get outta there as soon as I could, I didn’t want to leave you out here by yourself for too long,”

“It’s fine Jack, I’m capable enough to manage to be alone for a couple of minutes, don’t you worry,”

“I know you can, but I still, after last week…”

“Let’s not talk about it. I’m fine, you’re fine, it’s all fine. Except for maybe your jersey that according to Davey, you haven’t washed since last week, you pig!” She pulled back, smiling cheekily at him before leaning up to kissing him quickly, grabbing his hand, “C’mon, let’s go. Don’t want to lose any more time, do we?”

“I missed ya Ace,” Jack said sweetly, making a point of swinging their hands between them as they started their short walk to the field.

“You saw me at lunch babe,” Jack opened his mouth to respond, but Katherine kept going, “But, I missed you too,” He smiled, and her stomach flipped (The effect that boy had on her, even still after almost a year together).

As they walked they caught each other up on what’d happened in the classes between lunch and the end of the day, Jack telling Katherine a story about something that Romeo had done that he found incredibly funny. By the time they got to the field, Jack was beside himself in laughter, spitting out barley illegible sentences in an attempt to finish his story. Katherine laughed along with him, more at how much he was cracking himself up than the actual story itself.

“Anyway,” He sighed, wiping his eyes, “It was funnier in person, you had to be there,”

“It was very funny, I like the way you told it,” She promised.

“Thanks,” He leaned forward to kiss her, but she pulled back before he could, causing him to stumble forward and let out a surprised grunt. “Wha-”

“You’re it,” She said, tapping his shoulder and taking off through the gates.

Jack laughed. “I’m going to get you!” He yelled after her, breaking into a sprint. He chased after her, their laughter ringing through the field until he caught up to her (After all, he was considerably faster than her), grabbing her by the waist and swinging her over his shoulder. 

Katherine squealed in surprise, twisting herself around so she was almost laying across his shoulders, her body curved as she grasped his head to not fall off. “Ace!” He laughed, grabbing hold of her legs.

“It’s all over now Jack, I have the higher ground!” He smiled up at her mischievously, and started to jog, tightening his grip so she wouldn’t fall. 

“Jack!” She squealed again. He skidded to a halt as he felt her start to wobble, squatting down so she could jump off safely. She grabbed his shoulder as she did, causing him to fall onto the grass beside her. She followed him down, laying next to him and resting her head on his shoulder.

“Hi,” She whispered.

“Hey,” He replied, swooping down to kiss her, After a while, the two pulled apart, and Jack pulled the both of them into a sitting position. Katherine smiled cheekily, and Jack knew another round of chasey was about to start.

She stood, snatching the baseball cap off Jack’s and putting it on her own, walking a few steps and waiting for him to stand before she started running. Jack just sat there, staring up at her in awe.

“Aren’t you going to chase me?” She asked, pouting playfully.

Jack shook himself out of his trance, swallowing thickly. “You look… really cute in my hat. Seriously, it’s the most adorable thing I’ve ever seen,”

Katherine blushed, looking down at her feet. “Really?”

“Uh-huh,” He nodded frantically, a dumb smile on his face.

“You’re sweet, thank you. Now c’mon, chase me!” She grinned, running off when she saw him stand.

They spent the rest of the afternoon running and wrestling each other until it started to get dark and Jack decided it was probably time to take Katherine home, never once did their laughter flatter or the smiles left their faces. He walked her home, stopping in front of her front steps with a sad smile.

“Here’s your hat back,” Katherine said, holding out the cap, which she hadn’t taken off before then, to him. He took it from her, but instantly put it back on her head.

“You keep it,”

“But, it’s your team hat,” Katherine protested.

“I have other team hats, and it looks way better on you than it does on me. Seriously, keep it,” Katherine softened, nodding and leaning in to kiss him a few times.

The pair said their goodbyes and parted ways, and Katherine took the hat back off to walk through her house, holding it close to her chest as her heart swelled with love. Jack started the walk back to his house, the image of Katherine in his hat burning in his mind.

**Author's Note:**

> This is heavily based on Kara Lindsay's 'Meet The Newsies' video, which I watch way too often for it to be considered normal.


End file.
